I’ve not finished FF7R yet but I agree the major failings are in the combat system never quite working in sync with you. I feel the need for a simplified gambit system or at least a ‘everybody block’ button. Spell casting is also bizarre. Other than that I’m really enjoying it way more than I thought I would.
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Yeah it’s almost a miracle that this jury-rigged pile of design fudges all kind of works and usually is not too frustrating. I understand why they didn’t add AI scripting, it is unsatisfyingly indirect in most of its forms.
Mostly they are kind of inert when you’re not controlling them so it incentivizes you to do this active and entertaining control rotation. It works mostly like one of those fighting games where you can swap in pinch hitters who just drop out of the sky and push the old fighter into the background. But it doesn’t want to get too abstract or distant from traditional RPG battles so it like tries to have it halfway: they “really are” still in the field of battle and interacting with what’s happening, or are they? The main problem is it’s so muddy and fuzzy how it really works.
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My first go through the reactor, I was dealing with a Shock Trooper (those guys that move around really fast), and for some reason, Barrett decides to run off ahead and attract the ire of two more of them, so I go and try to help his ass out and now we’re both dead because those fuckers hit way too fast. And Barrett was mostly just standing there dicking around and taking it.
Basically, after 40 hours the combat clicks for me as long as I’m actively managing all the characters and not just one. So every time someone gets an atb bar filled I automatically go into their menu and pick something for them to do. This has the effect of me constantly thinking about the next two or three actions/spells/whatever while managing health/mana levels.
It also helps that as the game goes on you get materias that will start you off with a full atb bar for whichever character it’s equipped to, as well as other materias that give you an atb boost for doing certain things like using your abilities. So you can eventually get to a setup where you’re rarely having to run around and wait for the atb bar to fill but it does take a good dozen hours or so to get there.
My general FF7R battling advice: Always have the Assess ability equipped on someone and assess every new enemy you encounter so you can see what their weaknesses are. When entering battle press the touch pad to bring up the assessment screen so you can check if you’ve assessed an enemy or not and see what weakness they have.
Once you know the weakness use it against them. This is as simple as making sure each party member has at least one or two elemental magic spells equipped so you can access the whole range of fire, blizzard, wind, thunder etc. available.
PRO-TIP: Use all of your abilities that mention increasing stagger. Enemies take more damage and die a lot quicker when you can get them staggered so that should be the first thing you’re working toward.
PRO-TIP: Chakra materia is super useful because it’s basically a heal spell for whichever character has it equipped and it doesn’t cost MP. Pair a max level Chakra materia with an All materia and you can heal the whole party regularly for just the cost of one atb bar.
PRO-TIP: Stick Deadly Dodge materia on whoever you’re main is and just dodge into an attack all over the place throughout the fight.
Basically just use as many of the blue and pink materias as you can as often as you can.
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having to spend ATB to use items is the greatest design decision they made. Fuck action rpgs that let you pause the action and chug all the healing items you want
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yeah after a shaky 25+ hours i found the endgame combat pretty good
i had someone keep the -50% damage buff up all the time and barret as a prayer healer as the final couple of levels are an enormous heal for no mp and he builds ap very quickly, worked well
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yeah Barrett is perfectly suited to being a dedicated healer, that’s what he was in my team as well.
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called time on black mesa again, i guess i just don’t like half life anymore?
think i’m going to stop keeping a onenote list of ‘stuff i should play’ and just… you know… play what i want to
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embrace chaos
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because waiting for a bar that doesn’t exist to the character to fill up makes way more sense.
well at least it shows passing familiarity with the concept of balance
I really like how Final Fantasy XII lets items take effect immediately but then prorates your ATB gauge; it gives items a crisis use next to your healers.
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I’d rather it actually be fun, and I wouldn’t call what I’ve experienced “balanced”.
timing vital actions within the limits of System can be fun
if you find that it’s the fun thing
in a given use case
for you
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I’m gamepassing Metro Exodus and the beginning is some pretty bad Everything I Hated About The Ratcheting Constriction of the Previous Two Games (short bursts of Game between half-life animatic first-person script happenings + forced stealth to really teach you the importance of stealth crimes) but I like how it personalizes its Big World Changing/Recontextualizing News with Your Father-in-Law Knew It All Along + Really Sucks?
The sweaters are intensely detailed.
Here’s hoping a fabled Big Level is near…
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it stands for Anxiety Time Battle
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They model the revolver after an 1895 nagant, I assume both because The Setting and to justify an early-game revolver hosting a suppressor. The little ammo silhouettes on the HUD are even shaped like the weird, foreskinned cartridge we all know and love! But it has a swing-out cylinder and only holds 3 rounds?
The bombs made mutants of so many disparate things…
edit: I squinted harder, and the silhouette looks more .44 Russian? So it’s a 19th century break-action blackpowder revolver modified to have a swing-out cylinder and shoot 7.62 nagant?
I’m panicking.
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I wasn’t complaining about chugging potions in a menu being unrealistic, but that I like the fact that I have to choose between pushing to finish a combat early or chugging potions in those early battles. The ATB gauge isn’t something I wait for it to fill at its base rate, too. That’s one of the reasons I like how combat is approached in FF7R; I have a lot of options for how I can get my ATB gauge filled and just waiting is almost always the worst choice.
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p*ssed as h#ck he eluded the giant toothy chickenduck only to find himself in a huge colon
discovering this spooky old manse is haunted by the ghost of an enormous butt and all its attached plumbing
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It’s haunted by a racist pirate and a giant earthboring worm creature.
So yes an enormous butt
AITD appeals more than so many survival horror games because its scope is so small and the art direction is so well realized
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